HOW TO PAINT: TYRANIDSTHIS BOOKLET WILL TAKE YOU THROUGH, STEP BY STEP, ON HOW TO PAINT A TYRANID TERMAGANT MINTURE BUT THIS DOES’NT MEAN YOU CANNOT USE THE TECNIQUES YOU LEARN HERE TO PAINT OTHER TYRANID MINITURES OR EVEN OTHER RACES OF CITADEL MINITURE.
· The first thing you must do before painting any CITADEL miniature is to set up a suitable painting area for you to be able to paint easily and comfortably at. So take a few sheets of old newspaper (not the one your mum or dad is reading) and spread it out on a table or work bench where you will be painting at. Next you must fill an old used pot or jar full of cold water, it must be cold because otherwise it will not remove the paint fully from your brush when you rinse it out. Set it onto your area where it cannot easily tip over. You can blue tack your water pot/ jar down for extra stability.
Then take two pieces of kitchen role and place them next to each other, one will be for drying of your brush when you have rinsed it , and the other is for when you want to dry brush but this technique will be explained later. Now you have your area set up you need your equipment.
· You will need a various number of tools and paints to paint CITADEL miniatures but once you have them it is much simpler. The equipment you will need is :
· A medium sized dry brush
· A standard brush
· 
A fine detail brush
A fine detail brush· Modelling sand
· Modelling grass
· PVA glue
( All of these items can be purchased at a games workshop store, the staff will help you find what you want with no fuss at all and if you have and questions or you want to find the location of these shops please visit WWW.gamesworkshop.com where you can find what you are looking for.)
· Now that you have your basic equipment you need paints to use them with, these paints can be acquired via the games workshop website or by their stores. For this particular model these are the paints you will require:
· CITADEL colour KNARLOC GREEN
· CITADEL colour MECHRITE RED
· CITADEL colour CHAOS BLACK
· CITADEL colour SKULL WHITE
· CITADEL colour SPACE WOLVES GREY
· CITADEL colour THRAKA GREEN
· CITADEL colour BLOOD RED
· CITADEL colour TALLARN FLESH
· The model that we will be painting is called a ‘Games Workshop Tyranid termagant’. This miniature comes in a multi part plastic kit and must be assembled by using ‘CITADEL plastic glue thick’. It has multiple options for weapons and poses; it is the most basic troop type of the Tyranids and is a great model to start on, for someone who is just starting to collect Tyranids. There will be twelve miniatures in a pack of Tyranid termagants so you will spend a while painting them and assembling them. I am only going to tell you how to paint the Tyranid termagant miniature but the assembly instructions are shown on the box.
· When you have your area, equipment and paints you can get on with assembling and priming. First assemble the miniature as stated on the box with the ‘CITADEL plastic glue thick’, this will be difficult the first time you do it but you will get better with practice. When this is done and the glue has hardened you should cover the miniature in several coats of the ‘CITADEL Skull White spray primer’. This will give you a base coat to work off. When you spray the model you want to be outside in a nice open area and try to refrain from breathing in any of the spray paint, as it can be poisonous if too much is inhaled and have bad side effects. Please do not use around young children or asthma sufferers. When spraying stay about 15cm away from the model with the can and only dust the model with the paint, you don’t want the primer too thick, otherwise the details of the miniature will be obscured. I would advise you to practise on a piece of scrap wood or stone just to get the hang of it. Please keep well clear of fire in this would advise you to practise on a piece of scrap wood or stone just to get the hang of it. Please keep well clear of fire in this process as the primer is extremely flammable. When you have covered one side of the model leave it to dry for 15 minutes, then turn the model over and spay the other side and wait another 15 minutes. Next spray the top of the model and wait for a further 15 minutes and then spray the underside of the model and wait the last 15 minutes. I would advice spraying multiple models at once because it is more time effective. It is easier to spray the underside of the model if the base is not attached and then put on later.
Once you have primed and put your miniature on to its base you can start painting it. with Tyranids you start off with the skin (before we start, I am going to show you how to paint my colour scheme but It is your choice what colour your Tyranids are, usually there is a contrast between the carapace and the ski n e.g. light- dark, red- green.), take your ‘CITADEL standard brush’ and paint all the skin areas in the colour ‘Tallarn Flesh’. Then use your ‘CITADEL medium dry brush’ and dry brush the skin with a mix of the colour ‘Space Wolves Grey’ and the colour ‘Tallarn flesh’ in about a 2:1 ratio (2 parts ‘Tallarn Flesh’ and 1 part ‘Space Wolves Grey’.) The technique of dry brushing is very simple, but very effective. What you do is get a small amount of your paint on your dry brush , then the take your piece of kitchen role and then wipe of most of the paint so you are left with only enough paint to catch the top bits of the model, when you have done this you bring your brush back and forwards quickly across the area you have chosen, (in this case the skin) but not going in to the deeper parts of the model, so you get the effect of depth In your miniature and it will look amazing with not much effort. Dry brush the skin again with a mix of the colour ‘Tallarn Flesh’ and the colour ‘Space Wolves Grey’ but this time in a 1:1 ratio. Then dry brush the skin once more time but with just the colour ‘Space Wolves Grey’.
Now that you have finished the skin you start on the carapace. So take your ‘CITADEL standard brush’ and paint all the carapace areas (this includes the back carapace, the thigh carapaces and the head carapace) with the colour ‘Knarloc Green’. Now is where it gets tricky, using your ‘CITADEL standard brush’ and make a mixture of the colour ‘Knarloc Green’ and the colour ‘Space Wolves Grey’ in about a 3:1 ratio (3 parts ‘Knarloc Green’ and 1 part ‘Space Wolves Grey’) then feather (feathering is a technique to make colours look like they are blending but they aren’t, it is done by gently bouncing your brush along the join between the two selected colours to make small lines where the colours join) this mixture on to the carapace areas but leave a strip of the previous colour at the top of each plate. Then use your ‘CITADEL standard brush’ and mix some of the colour ‘Knarloc Green’ and some of the colour ‘Space Wolves Grey’ in about a 2:1 ratio (2 parts ‘Knarloc Green’ and 1 part ‘Space Wolves Grey’),and feather this mixture on to the carapace areas but leave strips of the previous colours to make the blending effect. Finally to complete the carapaces mix the colour ‘Knarloc Green’ and the colour ‘Space Wolves Grey’ in a 1:1 ratio and feather this on to the carapace areas but leave strips of the previous colours to add to the blending effect.
Once you have completed the skin and the carapace areas you now must paint the claws. Take your ‘CITADEL standard brush’ and paint all the claws and hooves the colour ‘Chaos Black’. Then using the feathering technique paint the hooves claws the colour ‘Mechrite Red’ but leave a strip of the previous colour to add to the effect. Now using your ‘CITADEL standard brush’ feather on to the claws and hooves the colour ’Blood Red’ but leave a strips of the previous colours to add to the blending effect.Next use your ‘CITADEL fine detail brush’ and paint the details of the model , basically the joints in the models arms the gaps in the flesh and the rib cage paint them in the colour ‘Thraka Green’
Then paint the eyes, eye sockets, teeth and gums in the colour ‘Chaos Black’ with your ‘CITADEL fine detail brush’ and then paint the individual teeth with your ‘CITADEL fine detail brush ‘in the colour ‘Skull White’. Then to finish off the model put a small white dot in the model’s eye to act as its pupil. (This will take a lot practise, a steady hand and determination but it is
Worth it because it really brings the model to life.)
Finally we are going to decorate the base of the model by putting a small blob of PVA glue no bigger than a garden pee onto the base of the model and the spread it around the base with a lolly pop stick or with a cotton bud carefully avoiding the legs of the miniature, then dig the model in to your pot of ‘CITADEL modelling sand’ with small circling motions so that the whole model’s base is buried in the pot of ‘CITADEL modelling sand’ then shake off the excess and let it fully dry for roughly 3-4 hours. Next put small spots of glue in random places on your model’s base, then take your ‘CITADEL modelling grass’ and tip a small amount of the modelling grass on to the areas you just put your bobs of glue on. Shake off the excess and let it fully dry for about 2-3 hours. Whilst the grass is drying blow on it gently to make it stand up and appear more realistic.
That’s it, I hope you learnt all the information and techniques you need to paint Tyranids. The Tyranid Termagant is the basic miniature of the Tyranids and is great if you are boosting your existing force but if you are creating a new one there is a set that I would highly recommend:
· The Tyranid Battleforce
This is the ultimate Tyranid kit. It has mostly all of the elements needed to make a successful Tyranid force. It is a must have for all Tyranid collectors and a great way to start off a Tyranid force.
If you follow these instructions and get the Battleforce and you are well on your way to starting your own Tyranid force
Thanks to:
· Games workshop
· CITADEL
